Peru: The Matsés, last shamans of the Amazon rainforest, fight back against transnational oil company

The Matsés indigenous people are fighting back to stop Pacific Rubiales Energy, a Canadian oil and gas company, from destroying their territory and endangering their lives and forests. One of the company’s exploration blocks, on the Brazilian border, is in an area proposed for designation as a national reserve, theoretically to protect the Matsés. Another block overlaps with land officially demarcated as the territory of this indigenous people. But the Matsés are standing up against the company. “Our ancestors always told us that it is outsiders who begin conflicts. Just like during the rubber boom, they are going to come again and cause conflicts between us. Go and tell the whole world that the Matsés are standing firm in our opposition to the oil company. We do not want our land to be invaded!”